six volumes move the History from the first van Rijn collection to the period of the early Terran Empire;
nine volumes are set during the lifetime of Dominic Flandry;
one collection and one novel cover the period after the Terran Empire although the collection also includes two short stories set earlier.
The series needed to be rationalized, which Baen Books have done. However, that earlier seventeen volume version from different publishers was an impressive sprawling un-uniform future history series unlike any other.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Poul Anderson was inspired by Robert Heinlein's Future History and Isaac Asimov's FOUNDATION stories, and surpassed both of them. Altho I still like many of Heinlein's FH stories and USED to like Asimov's FOUNDATION series. I still remember the disappointment I felt the last time I reread the three original FOUNDATION books a few years ago. Flat, colorless (for the most part) prose. And thin, weakly developed, uninteresting characters (aside from "villains" like Bel Riose and the Mule).
Jerry Pournelle's Co-Dominium series, had it been more fleshed out, is the only fictional future history deserving of being compared to Anderson's work. But I'm sure David Birr would argue for including H. Beam Piper's Terro-Human Future History as well.
Sean
Sean,
I think that Known Space is better than Co-Dominium. In the latter, humanity does nothing but export militarism and imperialism beyond the Solar System.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I forgot about Larry Niven's Known Space series, and should have included it with the others I listed. And I enjoyed many of his KS stories. But I disagree with your view of the Co-Dominium timeline. It was REALISTIC of Pournelle to show human beings remaining as quarrelsome and strife prone as we KNOW actual people are. And I think Poul Anderson would have agreed with me. We see plenty of conflict in the Technic series, after all.
And "militarism" is another word I believe is far too loosely and carelessly used. So much so that I'm not sure what it MEANS. I would add it to my list of sloppily used words: sexism, racism, fascism, colonialism, and now militarism.
Sean
Clericalism?
Kaor, Paul!
That too would probably be included in my list of carelessly used terms if more people were using that word.
Sean
Sean: what do YOU think: sexism, racism, fascism, colonialism, militarism, and clericalism mean?
Cheers,
-kh
That's a tough one but Sean can handle it!
Post a Comment